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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, May 25, 2005

Wed May 25 18:36:50 GMT 2005


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, May 25, 2005
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>1. Nuclear Energy's Green Glow
>2. Edelman's Rescue Plan for the PR Industry
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. Pay-for-Praise Comes Under Scrutiny
>2. U.S. Funded Al Hurra Looks For Good News In Iraq
>3. The Color TV of Fear
>4. Labouring Under Illusions
>5. Medicare Seeks Multiple PR Partners
>6. BP: Beyond Published Criticism
>7. Heal Thyself, Medical Journals Told
>8. Political Conformity on Social Security
>9. Doubting Scientists for Hire
>10. Still in the Torturers' Lobby
>11. The Passion of Fake Radio News
>12. Stormin' Morgan Joins Ad Bullies' League
>13. British PR Firms Go Nuclear
>14. Smokes Still Get in Children's Eyes
>15. American Diabetes Association Makes Sweet Deal with Cadbury Schweppes
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. NUCLEAR ENERGY'S GREEN GLOW
>by Laura Miller
>   "Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone
>   public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among
>   environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for
>   global warming," the New York Times' Felicity Barringer reports. And
>   while environmentalists who support nuclear power as a supposedly
>   "emission-free" alternative to fossil fuels are not representative
>   of the larger movement, the buzz about them is mushrooming. "Their
>   numbers are still small, but they represent growing cracks in what
>   had been a virtually solid wall of opposition to nuclear power among
>   most mainstream environmental groups," writes the Times.
>        Make no mistake - nuclear power has not become any safer or
>   cleaner. Nuclear plants still pose a huge threat to the communities
>   in which they are located and highly radioactive spent fuel has yet
>   to be dealt with adequately. "It's not that something new and
>   important and good had happened with nuclear, it's that something
>   new and important and bad has happened with climate change," Stewart
>   Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and a new devotee of
>   nuclear energy, told the Times.
>        In fact, the only thing that the nuclear power industry has
>   been working to clean up is its image. The first quarter issue of PR
>   Watch, now available online, examines the industry's use of public
>   relations to quell safety concerns and undermine grassroots efforts
>   to shut down nuclear plants. Over the past several years, PR Watch
>   has seen a marked increase in industry efforts to change the
>   public's perception of nuclear power.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3679
>
>2. EDELMAN'S RESCUE PLAN FOR THE PR INDUSTRY
>by Bob Burton
>   Over the last four months, Richard Edelman, the CEO, president and
>   chair of the privately-owned PR firm Edelman, has been busy blogging
>   away about how the public standing of the PR industry is in
>   free-fall.
>        In a May 2nd post, he was incredulous that blogger David
>   Weinberger - who has been a consultant to Edelman's firm - doesn't
>   think that PR people have a role in the blogosphere, because they
>   are, by their very nature, propagandists.
>        A few weeks back, Edelman blogged about spending a weekend
>   smarting after CNN/US president Jon Klein referred to "sophisticated
>   corporate PR departments, marketers and politicians" as
>   "propagandists," during his speech to the National Association of
>   Broadcasters.
>        While it might seem self-evident to most people that the PR
>   industry is in the propaganda business, these incidents led an
>   agitated Edelman to propose a five-point plan to rescue the PR
>   industryâ¬"s tarnished credentials.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3666
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. PAY-FOR-PRAISE COMES UNDER SCRUTINY
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR2005052401294.html
>   Jonathan Adelstein of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
>   called "for an investigation of experts who tout products on
>   television without disclosing payments from the manufacturers." The
>   Wall Street Journal and Washington Post have reported on "technology
>   and other experts who are paid tens of thousands of dollars by such
>   companies as Sony, Apple and Hewlett-Packard" and who have praised
>   those companies' products "on NBC's 'Today' show, other network
>   programs and during 'satellite tours' of local TV stations." Such
>   payola violates federal law and could result in fines of up to
>   $10,000 for repeat offenders. "It's very deceptive to pretend to be
>   an objective expert when in fact you're shilling for some private
>   company," said Adelstein.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 25, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3716
>
>2. U.S. FUNDED AL HURRA LOOKS FOR GOOD NEWS IN IRAQ
>http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,357110,00.html
>   With a yearly budget of over $40 million, Al Hurra, a U.S. supported
>   TV channel for the "Arab World," is "one of the US government's most
>   expensive public diplomacy efforts yet," reports MediaCorp News, a
>   Singapore-based media group. Since its launch in February 2004, most
>   news stories about the 24-hour Arabic-language satellite station
>   report that the channel is viewed as little more than U.S.
>   propaganda in the form of news and entertainment. Al Hurra's
>   credibility as an independent news outlet is challenged by the
>   German magazine Der Spiegel's report that the station's "50 staff
>   members in Iraq have been instructed to be on the lookout for signs
>   of improvement. 'If the power comes back on in a part of the city,
>   we see this as being more newsworthy than reporting that the power
>   is out someplace else,' says one employee."
>SOURCE: Der Spiegel, May 21, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3715
>
>3. THE COLOR TV OF FEAR
>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/05/22/crime_scenes?pg=full
>   "Obsessive coverage of urban crime by local television stations,
>   UCLA law professor Jerry Kang argued in the Harvard Law Review ...
>   is one of the engines driving lingering racism in the United States.
>   So counterproductive is local broadcast news, he says, that it is
>   time the FCC stopped using the number of hours a station devotes to
>   local news as evidence of the station's contribution to the 'public
>   interest,' which has traditionally been a requirement for a
>   broadcast license." Kang cites psychological research that racist
>   assumptions linking people of color with violence and crime are
>   weakened, after "footage of a respected black figure like Bill Cosby
>   or Martin Luther King, Jr." is viewed. Local TV news reinforces
>   racist stereotypes, Kang argues, pointing to a 13-month study of Los
>   Angeles stations that found crime stories led broadcasts "51 percent
>   of the time and took up 25 percent of total newscast minutes."
>SOURCE: Boston Globe, May 22, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3714
>
>4. LABOURING UNDER ILLUSIONS
>http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/comment/0,7494,1490418,00.html
>   Britain's Channel 4 documentary "Undercover in New Labour" includes
>   footage from "a reporter wearing hidden cameras who volunteered to
>   work on the party's election campaign and ended up being drafted to
>   work at its national PR headquarters." The documentary shows Labour
>   staff using "party supporters in key professions from medicine and
>   the law to the armed forces and the police, who were prepared to
>   appear on TV and in the papers and lie through their teeth that
>   their support for this or that policy was entirely unsolicited,"
>   writes Mark Borkowski. But "is singling out New Labour for criticism
>   reasonable," Borkowski asks, when astroturfing "has been going on
>   for decades in business, especially among the oil, pharmaceutical
>   and tobacco industries?" Undercover reporters were placed with
>   Britain's three main political parties, "but it was decided the
>   strongest story was the way the Labour campaign was run," an
>   anonymous source told the Guardian.
>SOURCE: Guardian, May 23, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3713
>
>5. MEDICARE SEEKS MULTIPLE PR PARTNERS
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=238286&site=3
>   The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which
>   greatly increased spending on private PR firms in 2003, "is looking
>   for at least three agencies that will be responsible for nearly all
>   of its outreach programs over the next five years." CMS's current
>   "preferred" firms - the only ones it solicits pitches from - are
>   Ketchum, GCI Group, Ogilvy PR and American Education Development.
>   "Under the last umbrella contract," reports PR Week, "Ketchum led a
>   $25 million integrated marketing campaign to drive people to the
>   Medicare (800) number and website." The new $17.25 million contract
>   will involve "research, messaging, social marketing, education,
>   training, and media relations." One priority will be "raising
>   awareness of reforms mandated by the 2003 Medicare Modernization
>   Act," which Congress mandated additional funding for "education and
>   enrollment efforts around."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 23, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3712
>
>6. BP: BEYOND PUBLISHED CRITICISM
>http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45132
>   Like General Motors and Morgan Stanley, the energy company BP "has
>   adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward negative editorial coverage."
>   BP's media buyer, the WPP firm MindShare, now "demands that
>   ad-accepting publications inform BP in advance of any news text or
>   visuals they plan to publish that directly mention the company, a
>   competitor or the oil-and-energy industry" and give BP "the option
>   to pull any advertising from the issue without penalty." An unnamed
>   magazine executive called BP's new policy a "stupid request," but
>   said his company has "unwritten guidelines with advertisers from
>   several industries, including auto, airlines and tobacco, to pull
>   their ads if related negative stories are in the issue." In 1997,
>   following similar demands from Chrysler, the Magazine Publishers of
>   America and the American Society of Magazine Editors took a stance
>   against magazines giving advertisers "a sneak peek at stories,
>   photos or tables of contents."
>SOURCE: Advertising Age, May 24, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3711
>
>7. HEAL THYSELF, MEDICAL JOURNALS TOLD
>http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020138 
>
>   In an essay for the Public Library of Science, the former editor of
>   the British Medical Journal, Richard Smith, argues that while
>   corporate advertising may be the most obvious source of revenue for
>   medical journals, they are "the least corrupting." More significant,
>   he writes, are the clinical trials the journal publishes which carry
>   "the journal's stamp of approval (unlike the advertising)." While
>   journals can more tightly screen what gets published, Smith thinks
>   more fundamental steps are required to "stop journals from being
>   beholden to companies." He argues more public funding to research
>   treatments is needed, and journals should consider not publishing
>   trials at all. Trial results, he suggests, "should be made available
>   on regulated Web sites. Instead of publishing trials, journals could
>   concentrate on critically describing them." But the editor of the
>   New England Journal of Medicine accused Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and
>   Merck of "making a mockery" of an online list of drug trials, saying
>   the companies' entries "are written in a way that they are trying to
>   hide what they are doing."
>SOURCE: Public Library of Science, May 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3710
>
>8. POLITICAL CONFORMITY ON SOCIAL SECURITY
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush20may20,0,4316498.story
>   A worker who knows Social Security "could run out before they
>   retire," a couple with children who like "the idea of leaving
>   something behind to the family," and a single parent who wants "more
>   retirement options and security" than Social Security offers - all
>   younger than 29. Those are people the White House asked the group
>   Women Impacting Public Policy to recruit for a Rochester, New York
>   event promoting Bush's Social Security plan. The participants in a
>   Wisconsin event last week "appeared to mirror" the same profile,
>   reported the Los Angeles Times. A White House spokesperson said,
>   "Every president ... has used the bully pulpit to talk about their
>   agenda." Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic Congresswoman who
>   heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and
>   Medicare, said, "It's unfortunate that the president never hears any
>   opposition to a plan that has a lot of opposition."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3709
>
>9. DOUBTING SCIENTISTS FOR HIRE
>http://www.gsenet.org/fri.php#Industry%20Strategy:%20Create%20Doubt%20to%20Fight%20Regulations
>   "The vilification of threatening research as 'junk science' and the
>   corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as
>   'sound science' has become nothing less than standard operating
>   procedure in some parts of corporate America," writes Clinton-era
>   Energy Department epidemiologist David Michaels. One example is
>   beryllium, an "extremely toxic" metal used in nuclear warheads.
>   Beryllium producers hired two "product defense" firms to "dispute
>   and reanalyze data showing adverse health effects." Michaels says
>   industry groups "have grown more brazen since George W. Bush became
>   president," pointing to industry-friendly appointments to an
>   advisory panel on childhood lead poisoning and the Data Quality Act.
>   The Data Quality Act (promoted at the state level by the American
>   Legislative Exchange Council) has been "used by groups bankrolled by
>   the oil industry to discredit the National Assessment on Climate
>   Change" and "by the Salt Institute to challenge the advise of the
>   National Institutes of Health that Americans should reduce their
>   salt consumption."
>SOURCE: Scientific American, June 15, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3708
>
>10. STILL IN THE TORTURERS' LOBBY
>http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=15624
>   The London office of U.S.-based PR giant Hill & Knowlton signed a
>   $600,000 contract with the government of Uganda, "to improve
>   Uganda's stained reputation as a human rights abuser and democracy
>   laggard." Foreign Minister Sam Kuteesa confirmed the contract, which
>   calls for Hill & Knowlton "to improve Uganda's image with donors and
>   to help blunt damaging reports from human rights watchdogs that have
>   been highly critical of the government." In Uganda, political
>   activity is "restricted" and planned elections in 2006 "have been
>   overshadowed by a controversial bid to amend the constitution so
>   President Yoweri Museveni can stand for a third term." Reports by
>   the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch have "documented
>   recent cases of torture by Ugandan security forces against political
>   opponents, alleged rebels and criminal suspects."
>SOURCE: Agence France-Presse, May 21, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3707
>
>11. THE PASSION OF FAKE RADIO NEWS
>http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/11705164.htm
>   "Back when Mel Gibson's movie 'The Passion of the Christ' was
>   arousing passions nationwide, a promotion packet arrived at local
>   public radio station KAZU," writes Karen Ravn in California. It
>   included "a transcript of questions an enterprising reporter might
>   want to ask Jim Caviezel, the movie's star," and "a CD of
>   Caviezel-recorded answers." As KAZU's news director at the time,
>   Bernhard Drax, described, "The transcript would say, 'Hi, Jim, how
>   are you?' and on the CD, Jim would say, 'I'm fine. It's good to be
>   here.'" KAZU didn't air the canned interview, but Drax said he
>   understood why other radio stations might. "The pressure in local
>   newsrooms ... is incredible," said Drax. Audio news releases like
>   the Caviezel interview help ease the "economic pressure" on strapped
>   radio newsrooms.
>SOURCE: Monterey County Herald (California), May 21, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3706
>
>12. STORMIN' MORGAN JOINS AD BULLIES' LEAGUE
>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050519/RMORGAN19/TPBusiness/International
>   "Morgan Stanley, whose battle with unhappy shareholders has played
>   out on the business pages, is warning prominent newspapers that it
>   could pull its advertising if it objects to articles." Morgan
>   Stanley's new ad policy says the company "must be notified" of any
>   "objectionable editorial coverage," so that a "last-minute change"
>   in its advertising can be made. If notification is impossible, the
>   policy directs all ads to be canceled, "for a minimum of 48 hours,"
>   reports Advertising Age. Morgan Stanley discussed the policy with
>   the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other major publications. The
>   Journal's publisher called it impractical, since "the ad department
>   has no knowledge of what stories are running." An anonymous
>   "high-ranking editor" told AdAge, "There's a fairly lengthy list of
>   companies that have instructions like this." Last month, General
>   Motors pulled its ads from the Los Angeles Times, due to negative
>   coverage.
>SOURCE: Reuters, May 19, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3682
>
>13. BRITISH PR FIRMS GO NUCLEAR
>http://www.newstatesman.com/Ideas/200505230004
>   "In the year or so before the general election" in Britain, "the
>   nuclear industry slowly but surely put together a classy public
>   relations act," report Jonathan Leake and Dan Box. "Last October,
>   British Energy appointed Craig Stevenson, formerly Monsanto's top UK
>   lobbyist, as head of government affairs. ... In December, BE
>   enlisted Helen Liddell, the former energy minister, to provide
>   'strategic advice.'" This "on top of the £1m BE paid to another PR
>   firm, Financial Dynamics." The Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, which
>   is "charged with cleaning up the mess from Britain's previous
>   nuclear programme, poached Jon Phillips," Heathrow Airport's PR head
>   who led a "successful campaign for a fifth terminal at Heathrow
>   despite furious public opposition." The waste disposal body Nirex
>   hired "the Promise public relations firm to promote a
>   multimillion-pound rebranding and renaming exercise," while the UK
>   Atomic Energy Authority "employed Grayling Political Strategy to
>   help raise its profile."
>SOURCE: The New Statesman (sub. req'd.), May 23, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3681
>
>14. SMOKES STILL GET IN CHILDREN'S EYES
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4556765.stm
>   "Major tobacco companies agreed to stop pushing for their products
>   to be promoted in the arts from 1998," but "the number of tobacco
>   brand appearances in U.S. films aimed at children has not fallen
>   significantly," according to a report published in the Journal of
>   the American Medical Association. The percentage of "films aimed at
>   children show[ing] tobacco brand names, or trademarks" fell slightly
>   from 15 to 12, after 1998. Yet, in the ongoing federal racketeering
>   trial against major tobacco companies, industry lawyers claimed
>   companies have "voluntarily" adopted tough advertising restrictions.
>   A Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company lawyer "suggested that the
>   companies had stopped advertising in magazines with youth
>   readerships of more than 15 percent or more than two million,"
>   reported the New York Times. Government witness and Campaign for
>   Tobacco-Free Kids president Matthew Myers disputed the claim,
>   pointing out recent ads in Sports Illustrated.
>SOURCE: BBC News, May 18, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3680
>
>15. AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION MAKES SWEET DEAL WITH CADBURY SCHWEPPES
>http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000204.html
>   "If you are wondering why Americans are losing the wars on cancer,
>   heart disease and diabetes, you might look at the funding sources of
>   the major public health groups," Russell Mokhiber and Robert
>   Weissman write. "Big corporations dump big money into these groups.
>   And pretty soon, the groups start taking the line of the big
>   corporations. Case in point: the American Diabetes Association
>   (ADA). Earlier this month, the ADA cut a deal with candy and soda
>   pop maker Cadbury Schweppes. Here's the deal - Cadbury Schweppes
>   kicks in a couple million dollars to the ADA. In return, the company
>   gets to use the ADA label on its diet drinks - plus the positive
>   publicity generated by the deal. Cadbury makes Dr. Pepper and such
>   nutritious treats as Cadbury's Cream Egg. You would have to have
>   your head buried deeply in the sand to deny that sugar-filled soda
>   is fueling childhood obesity - which in turn in is fueling type 2
>   diabetes." In an interview with the Corporate Crime Reporter, ADA's
>   Richard Kahn emphasized that the ADA logo would only appear on
>   "products that are better to eat."
>SOURCE: Corp-Focus, May 16, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3678
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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